Far Infrared Sauna - What Is It, And Are There Health Benefits?

For the most part, a far infrared sauna is the same as a traditional sauna - they're both rooms made out of wood.

The difference is the method of heating the occupants.

A traditional sauna uses a wood burning heater, electric, or gas heater and stones.

Infrared saunas use infrared heaters to heat its occupants. Far infrared energy is emitted from several heaters usually made of a ceramic or metallic material.

Sounds a little like a giant microwave or something, doesn't it?

Anyway... here's the interesting part...

Far infrared rays heat people and objects directly.

So what does this mean to you?

Because your body is heated directly, the surrounding air will be a lot cooler.

Traditional saunas (a.k.a. hot-air saunas) heat the air by convection.

To effectively elevate your core temperature and make you sweat, the operating temperature needs to be very high.

The temperature difference

The average air temperature in a traditional sauna ranges from around 150 to 200° F closer to the ceiling (since heat rises).

An infrared sauna is usually around 110 to 140° F.

Try to imagine how much different it feels to breathe in air that is 50 to 100° cooler!

In case you're wondering if the lower air temperature will prevent you from working up a good sweat, don't.

You will sweat plenty. In fact, many users report even heavier sweating.

Because of the penetration of the infrared rays, your body is literally heated from the inside out.

The depth of penetration is reported to be around 1.5 inches into the body.

Many health professionals claim that infrared saunas are very effective for detoxification because of the infrared rays.

Infrared vs Conventional Sauna

I think individual preference mainly depends on two factors...

1. which type of heat you prefer - the softer heat of an infrared sauna or the higher temperatures of hot-air saunas.

2. your reason for taking saunas

If detoxification is important to you for example, the claim made by many health professionals is worth consideration - that far infrared heat is better for detoxification.

So which type of sauna is better? From what I've read, you'll have to decide for yourself on this one. There are some strong views out there about this topic.

Of course, to a large extent it depends on what country you're in when you ask the question.

For example, if you ask the people of Finland, most likely you'll hear strong arguments for the good old fashioned hot-air sauna.

Terrence Banks is the author of http://www.steam-sauna-benefits.com There you can read more about infrared saunas and infrared sauna benefits